Report – State of care in Mental Health Services 2014 – 2017

Please find attached report on the state of care in mental health services 2014 to 2017. The report combines evidence from our inspections and findings from our role monitoring use of the Mental Health Act, as well as analysis of data from other sources. This rich resource of information means we now know more about the quality of mental health care than ever before.

CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

Some of the key findings are:

– 68% of core services provided by NHS trusts were found to be good, with 6% rated as outstanding. Among independent services, 76% were rated as good or outstanding (72% good and 4% outstanding).

– Some services performed particularly well, especially community services for people with a learning disability or autism and community services for older people.

– In addition, services that needed to improve have made real progress when they have taken on board our findings and committed to tackle problems proactively and learn from others.

– However, there are a substantial minority of NHS trust and independent services that need to improve the quality of care they provide. Thirty-nine per cent of NHS trusts were rated as requires improvement as at 31 May 2017, as did 23% of independent services. And a very small number were rated as inadequate: one NHS trust and three independent services.

The report identifies several areas of concern:

– Concerns about ‘locked rehabilitation wards’

– Great variation between wards in how frequently staff use restrictive practices and physical restraint to deescalate challenging behaviour